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- PETER GOERS. With China, many Aussies are absolute hypocrites (Sunday Mail 31.5.20)
- China is not a threat to Australia
- Australia’s pro-Israel media fights facts and ends careers
- Why Australia’s strategic situation is far worse than we think (AFR 6.7.20)
- The Coalition is just following orders
- It’s time to strip ‘national security’ of its sacred cow status. Part 1
- Moslem MP branded a terrorist. Is there a fair go?
- A win’s a win in Eden-Monaro
- China must obey international rules in the South China Sea but the US can ignore them in Diego Garcia.
- Lies and distortions about western policies in Asia: The Sino-Indian frontier dispute. Part 1 of 2
Category Archives: Economy
The structural and ideological foundations of Australia’s economic malaise: Can we avoid one crisis after another?
The dramatic and sudden shuttering of businesses following the imposition of coronavirus social-distancing rules has propelled the Australian economy into what is increasingly looking like a deep recession contradicting the rhetoric that the fundamentals are strong and provide a springboard … Continue reading
Posted in Economy, Politics
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Neoliberalism: Attacks on the ABC and academia are entirely logical.
Funding attacks on the ABC and the social sciences in academia by Scotty from Marketing: they fit perfectly with Noam Chomsky’s propaganda model.
Posted in Arts and Media, Economy
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BREXIT and the WTO
According to a report of the House of Lords on various BREXIT outcomes: “Trading with the EU under WTO rules alone would be the most disruptive option … this option is therefore unattractive for UK-EU trade in goods and in … Continue reading
Posted in Economy, World Affairs
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Equality or austerity after COVID?
Can the COVID crisis help drive a more equal Australia? The crisis reveals an alternative is possible, focuses attention on social needs and exposes the macroeconomic risks of growing economic insecurity. However, the shadow of debt and ‘snap back’ loom … Continue reading
Posted in Economy
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Why Australia’s strategic situation is far worse than we think (AFR 6.7.20)
For all the dire warnings in last week’s defence review, its chief fault lies in being far too optimistic.
Posted in Economy, Top 5
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How to avoid a September cliff edge (AFR 29.6.20)
Bond sales to the Reserve Bank would allow stimulus to continue without busting the budget or raising taxes.
Posted in Economy, Politics
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Saturday’s good reading and listening for the weekend
What people in other forums are saying about public policy
Three different views on post-COVID recovery
Two reports on social and economic options for post-COVID-19 recovery, one from the Grattan Institute and one from Phil Ruthven, have recently been published. We can assume there is a third, not yet public: a snap back and marketing plan … Continue reading
Posted in Economy
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“The Emperor has no clothes!” – should we invest in CCS?
The federal government will shortly vote on whether to significantly increase taxpayer funding of carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology in order to support ‘business as usual’ for the fossil fuel industry. Would this be a wise public investment?
Posted in Economy, Environment and climate
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The Prime Minister’s reform agenda for skills
Although it is good that the Prime Minister has recognised the importance of skills, missing from his reform agenda are two of the most important issues: the nature of skills and how they are taught, and the use of skills … Continue reading
The Grattan Institute’s Fiscal Recovery Plan
The economy is presently receiving an unprecedented, but time-limited, level of fiscal support. The report just released by the Grattan Institute provides a very good analysis of what is now needed to sustain the economic recovery.
Time for a “Green New Deal” in Australia?
Is the current political economic situation an opportunity for some progressive policies? ‘Never let a good crisis go to waste’ is a theme more familiar on the political right, but a “Green New Deal” could play well for the left … Continue reading
Posted in Economy, Environment and climate
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Saturday’s good reading and listening for the weekend
What people in other forums are saying about public policy
Worried about(Chinese) agents of foreign influence? Just look at who owns Australia’s biggest companies
The attention being given to possible covert influence being exercised by China in Australia shouldn’t distract us from recognising that very overt foreign influence now occurs through investment.
Do the grandchildren really pay the debt? The problem with Scott Morrison’s plan for recovery, and MMT
Michael West investigates Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) and the false assumption that the national Budget is like the household budget, or a business. They are already creating new money while denying the proposition that creating new money will expand the … Continue reading
Posted in Economy
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Morrison throws the switch to vaudeville
Fresh from his redemption after The Great Bush-fire Debacle, Scott Morrison is reverting to type. In a farcical press conference he stated that Australia’s institutions and businesses were being targeted by a sophisticated state-based cyber actor.
Posted in Defence/Security, Economy, Politics
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That’s not an Accord – now, this is an Accord!
Prime Minister Scott Morrison, on the back of some successful Covid19 crisis leadership, recently proposed that employer groups and the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) sit down together to negotiate a new Industrial Relations (IR) framework for the post … Continue reading
Save Australia’s Dairy Industry
When John Dahlsen tells us we need to pay more for milk and our dairy industry needs urgent government intervention we should sit up and pay attention.
Can we rely on the PM’s forecast economic boom?
Scott Morrison says Australia’s economy will have to expand by 3.75% per annum for the next five years to recover from the corona virus recession.
Posted in Economy, Refugees, Immigration
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BEVAN RAMSDEN. Campaigning for an independent, self-reliant, and sustainable manufacturing sector
Australia has lost much of its manufacturing industry, including the ability to produce essential strategic materials, and has become far too dependent on imports which are subject to disruption from pandemics, wars and foreign political threats.
Posted in Economy
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SATURDAY’s GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND
What people in other forums are saying about public policy
Posted in Economy, Public Policy
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Population ageing in Australia and Japan
Australia and Japan are demographic polar opposites.
Posted in Economy, Refugees, Immigration
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Folly of following the Five Eyes Anglo-Saxon relic
The main countries comprising this electronic espionage group have made an abysmal hash of responding to the economic and health impacts of Covid-19. Yet the Australian government has chosen them to develop a “strategic” economic response to the Covid 19 … Continue reading
Posted in Defence/Security, Economy
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The white elephant in the room: Australia is ideal for planes, not trains!
How can Australia spend $130 billion that would best benefit the country? A response, but not an answer, is not to spend it on an HSR (high-speed rail) system on the east coast.
Posted in Economy
8 Comments
China’s Consumers Increasing the Price of Provoking the Dragon
Australia’s governments, businesses and media have accorded inadequate attention to the power of the Chinese consumer when picking fights with Beijing.
Posted in Asia, Economy
4 Comments
GEOFF MILLER. ‘G5-Eyes’: a very strange economic grouping.
According to a report in The Australian of 8 June Treasurer Frydenberg has “led the push” and succeeded in establishing a series of “regular and formal” economic dialogue meetings among the countries that make up the “Five Eyes” intelligence-sharing group.
Posted in Defence/Security, Economy
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JACK WATERFORD. Punishing the ‘undeserving’ – the robo-debt fiasco
Heaven knows how the ultimate costs of the robo-debt fiasco will pan out. So far the Commonwealth has announced that it is paying back about three-quarters of a billion to nearly 400,000 people whose rights were trampled upon.
Posted in Economy, Politics
8 Comments
SATURDAY’s GOOD READING AND LISTENING FOR THE WEEKEND
What people in other forums are saying about public policy
Posted in Economy, Politics, Public Policy
4 Comments
MARION TERRILL AND TONY WOOD. The dos and don’ts of fiscal stimulus
Long lines at Centrelink are a sobering sight. The fear of sustained mass unemployment has led to a renewed push for fiscal stimulus, including for governments to fast-track road and rail projects, re-establish a serious manufacturing sector in this country, … Continue reading
BRENDAN COATES. Money for social housing the key to construction stimulus
There’s no doubt Australia’s construction industry is facing tough times. COVID-19 has caused migration to slow to a trickle. Some 2.6 million Australians have either lost their jobs or had their hours cut in the past two months. Many economists expect property prices to … Continue reading
Posted in Economy, Housing
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